The present invention relates to apparatus for turning circular knit hose inside out, sectioning it into a required number of unit hoses and closing each toe thereof with stitches on a continuous line.
In the production of hosiery, such as stockings and socks, a commonly-called "rib knitter" or a double cylinder knitting machine is employed to knit a long continuous circular hose. In this process it is necessary to section a long continuous hose band into unit hoses. To this end waste portions must be interposed between adjacent unit hoses. The stitches around the sectioned part are picked up by the operator's fingers. This is an extremely labor- and time-consuming operation, which of course reflects in the price of the product.
In addition, to effect the subsequent linking operation on each toe, it is previously required to turn each hose inside out. After the linking operation is finished, the normal side is again turned outside so as to enable the unit hose to be vapor set. This is also very time-consuming.